The companions made their way back to the hallway where only a third of the crowd from before remained. Harrison came up to them with an armload of papers. “Um, well, as you can see, there’s a lot.”
Joe eyed the papers and sighed, “We need a better plan.”
It took the better part of an hour for Joe to disperse the crowd and finally catch up with the rest of his party. Mirabella had appeared by Bixby’s side as they were walking to the Dwarven Embassy, much to the surprise of Harrison and Joe took a moment to attune to the Travel Stone in the courtyard it had been erected in. The dwarves for their part had done as promised and there were a handful of dwarves already beginning to move among the populace and interact with the Council, setting up trade and more importantly, bringing relief in the form of food and much needed supplies.
As they gathered in the courtyard, more fighters from among the human population showed up to help in the search for survivors. Joe had Harrison sort the list by locations and by the time the group got moving, there were five separate search parties, all with their own portion of the city to move through. The groups all had their primary goal of finding survivors and a secondary goal of finding supplies. Since they could not place non-system items in their inventories, they would mark on their maps where the supplies sat for a later group to go with carts and collect them.
Joe decided to take his group into the swamp area as he knew they could traverse it better than the other groups. Finally, Joe decided to take a moment to get everyone reacquainted with Harrison and to give him a few things. After the reintroductions were done and Harrison had a good handle on what everyone could do more or less, Joe said, “Alright, before we go out, I got you a few things. We tend to draw some rather tough creatures to us and I want to make sure you have at least some kind of edge heading out into the world.”
Harrison’s eye grew huge as Joe took out three items. “Are you freaking serious?” His jaw hung open as he accepted the gifts from Joe.
Wand of the Monstrous Spider
This wand, crafted from the chitin of a Monstrous Spider, allows the user to summon a single Monstrous Spider. The wand user can control the Monstrous Spider for the duration of the spell or until the Monstrous Spider is destroyed. Once the spell duration ends, the Monstrous Spider will die. Please consult a Tome of Monsters for the details regarding the abilities of the Monstrous Spider. Mana cost 300. Duration ten minutes.
Staff of the Bloodwidow
This staff was created by the famed artificer, Dorn Cargin, as a gift for an Arachnomancer he fancied. His self-preservation was blinded by lust and she used the staff on him when testing its properties. The caster must infuse Mana into the staff before use. Each casting requires 100 Mana to cast. The staff can store up to 400 Mana per day. Note: The per day limitation is removed if the caster is of an Arachnomancer Class. The wielder of the staff can cast [Bloodwidow’s Bite] which does 100 points of poison damage and causes 25 points of poison damage per minute for five minutes or until the poison is removed by a skill, spell or potion.
Additionally, the wielder can cast [Bloodwidow’s Web]. The spellcaster may conjure a mass of sticky webbing at any point within range of the spell. The webs must be anchored on at least three sides against solid masses such as walls, floors, ceilings, or trees or the spell will fail. Any creature entering the webs or initially ensnared by the casting is Slowed and receives a -20% to all combat skills until they are free from the webbing. Creatures with a strength rating of 100 or more may attempt to tear their way free of the webs. The webs are flammable and if set alight will burn off within a few seconds. Mana cost per casting is 50 Mana. Range is 60 feet from caster. Area of affect is a 20-foot cube. Duration is five minutes or until destroyed. While caught in the sticky substance, through contact, the target takes 25 points of poison damage per minute for five minutes or until the poison is removed by a skill, spell, potion, or the webs are destroyed.
Armor of Arachnia
This lightweight armor is a combination of spider silk chainmail and plates of hardened monstrous spider chitin. It is the favored armor of the feared Harvestmen spider riders of the Underweave clan of dark elves. It provides 500 points of protection to the wearer. Additionally, this armor carries two enchantments. The helmet grants [Eyes of Arachnia], allowing the wearer to not only see in 360 degrees, but also see in near and complete darkness. The armor itself allows the wearer to activate [Arachnia’s Limbs] which allows the wearer to easily traverse walls, ceilings and other angled surfaces with no penalties as well as freedom of movement within any [Web] spells of similar effects. There is no Mana cost to activate these enchantments.
Joe smiled at the teens’ reaction, “Well, to be honest, I had the wand for a long time, but now I see that there was a reason I kept it.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“Dude! I will totally pay you back for this when I can.” Harrison was quickly removing his own adventuring robe to don the armor. Iona stepped in to help him adjust its straps and buckles.
Rory bit into a large piece of jerky, “You’re a strange one a’right, Joe. Tossing out arms and armor like they was candies on Mithras Day.” Joe raised an eyebrow at Rory, who put up his hands and quickly added, “Not that I’m complaining mind you. You did solid by me and mine. I’m just saying, I don’t think I have even a smidge of the kind of charity you have in you.” At that Bixby moved next to Rory and eyed his jerky meaningfully. Rory made a show of reluctantly pulling out another piece and tossing it to Bixby who snatched it out of the air, “I make exception for you though, boyo.”
The group stood by the doorway that they had come through to fight the Triclop’s. Joe learned that it was called a sally port. He, Harrison and Rory all had a short fit of giggles while Iona and Kier rolled their eyes and Mirabella did not understand the humor. Smiling, Joe said, Okay, Iona, what’s the plan?”
Iona sighed, ”If all the children are done being children?” She eyed the three gigglers, “We’ll have Bella and Bixby on scout duty. I’ll take lead, Harrison in the middle, Kier and Rory on either side. Joe, you bring up the rear and keep an eye out for beasties.” She patted Harrison on the shoulder, “Lad, among the lot of us, you’re the lowest level. We aim to protect you as much as we can.”
“Thanks. But I’m not a push over.” Harrison said with some pride in his voice.
Rory snorted, “Ain’t no one questioning your heart and abilities laddie, but compared to the rest of us, you’re squishy.”
Harrison did not argue, and the team moved out of the walled grounds and into the swamp. Only it was no longer a swamp. The area that had formerly been swampland was now one hundred feet of dirt and a patchwork of cobbled walkways. It looked as if someone had created a city roadway grid with no buildings. The scene carried on for several hundred yards before the group saw more swampland. From here it was also easy to see that the land sloped upward slightly. “Well, that was unexpected.” Joe commented.
“Your people have been busy building out the city it would seem.” Kier said, nodding in approval.
“Enough gawkin’!” Rory spat, “Can we move along, or do you need to paint a picture?”
That was enough to get the group moving again and in a very short time they entered the swamp proper. As they slogged through the trees and muck, Harrison made a few comments about the landscape and the System. It was clear that while most people saw the System integration as a life destroying happening, Harrison saw it as a gift. He was a loner that had always wanted friends, but he was considered too weird for most of the kids his age. While he was into most of the same things such as video games and pop culture, his fascination with spiders creeped too many people out. Apparently including his parents. He had a regular group that he played Dungeons and Dragons with on Discord, but they did not really know his interests as they were all virtual friends and had never met in real life.
Joe felt for the kid and was glad that he managed the transition to the System so well. Joe wished more people would accept that the System was here to stay and try to adapt. The backstory from Harrison was finally interrupted by Mirabella appearing in front of Iona. They spoke in hushed tones and then Iona turned to the others and beckoned them close.
“According to Bella, the swamp ends not too far up ahead and the city proper continues from there. It seems that there’s a large group of gnolls milling around outside a housing structure. She thinks there are survivors barricaded inside and tis only a matter of time afore the boggins attack it in force.”
Kier asked, “How many and what level?”
Mirabella stepped onto a tree root to gain a bit of height as she answered, “There are roughly fifty gnolls at level fifteen, two champions at level thirty and a commander at level thirty-five. They have basic armor and weapons, but there are two shamans as well at level twenty.” She noticed Joe looking around, “Bixby stayed behind to keep a watch.” That caused Joe to relax a bit.
The group then looked to their battle planner Iona. She thought for a moment and said, “We go in quiet to see the battlefield. Once there, we target the shamans and the champions. Joe, you’ve got the commander. Harrison,” She locked eyes with the teen, “You’re on crowd control. Keep the main forces locked up as best you can while we take out the leaders. Bella you mind keeping a watch on the lad and striking where you can?”
Mirabella nodded and the group proceeded to follow her through swamp. They came out in a parking lot some ways down a street that had many homes and small businesses on it. Joe was a little pressed to figure out just where they were, but set that aside as he saw the small apartment complex surrounded by gnolls. Some were wandering around the outside of the complex and a few were taking pot shots with arrows at the windows. Every time an arrow hit, a dim flash of light would flare and the arrow would drop to the ground. Someone inside is doing a good job of keeping these guys out. Kudos to them. Let’s see if we can fix their problem. Joe scanned for the commander and found him standing next to the champions in a huddled discussion. It was right at that point that Bixby came up to the group out of the shadows like a spectre. “Hey guys?” Joe queried. “Change of plans? Bixby and I will take on the commander and both the champions. You guys can focus on the shamans and the rest of the forces?”
The group talked a bit more and finally agreed, although Harrison was skeptical of Joe and Bixby being able to handle all three of the high-level monsters. Once a new battle plan was laid, Joe and Bixby both cast several spells and practically disappeared from the group, only to reappear a moment later in the midst of the three huddled gnolls.
Joe released his aura among the monsters which caused all three of them to pause in fear. Bixby landed on one of the champions and the two of them sunk into the ground where a circular pool of void appeared. From Joe, black spikes erupted from his armor and pierced through the remaining two. His twin blades went to work after that easily carving through armor and flesh. Within moments, all three high level monsters were dead. Well, two were dead, one never returned from wherever Bixby took it.
“Jeezus!” Harrison gasped.
“Ye get used to it boyo.” Rory sighed as he made an impossible leap from where he was to land in the middle of a crowd of gnoll warriors. Then he went apeshit.
Iona shook her head and barked a few orders. Mirabella disappeared while Iona and Kier flanked Harrison and engaged the hyena-like gnolls.